A massive Star Wars snow monument has been built in Sapporo Japan for their 66th Annual Snow Festival. It took the effort of a few hundred Japanese Ground Defense Force soldiers and over 3500 tons of snow to erect the giant sculpture which measures 15 meters tall. The Disney sponsored project took a month to complete to build hype around their new Star Wars Film being released on December 18th.

The Star Wars sculpture features a very ominous Darth Vader in the foreground with 3 Storm Troopers who look as if they’re ready for battle. The sheer scale of the sculpture is very awe inspiring, but when it’s lit up with lights in the evening it looks like a giant CG Model.

Sapporo is the capital city of Hokkaido, where in the 1950’s, a few high school students would build snow sculptures in Odori Park. Today it’s an enormously popular commercialized festival, and draws over 2 million people. Along with the sculptures there are concerts and attractions for this week long event, which starts on February 5th and ends on the 11th.

For anyone making plans to Hokkaido Japan this winter, a pilgrimage to the Star Wars monument should be on the hit list. And because of the temporary nature of snow, if anybody misses this one, it will be gone forever.